Two patients died after operations by 'ineligible' surgeon

By Nigel Bunyan

12:01AM BST 19 May 2005

Two patients died after being operated on by a surgeon who was not qualified to carry out the operations, an inquest was told.

Hurais Syed, 50, was taken on as a locum by Dewsbury District Hospital, west Yorks, to cover a temporary shortage of urologists. His position required him to pass on all major procedures to the nearby Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield.

But hospital managers took no steps to restrict him and he carried on performing such operations.

In February 2000, Gladys Allen, 78, died on the operating table as a result of blood loss. Mr Syed was cleared of her manslaughter.

The second of his patients to die, John Hetherington, 67, suffered complications during a cancer operation and died 35 days later.

The jury that heard the inquest into his death has now returned a narrative verdict, in which it highlighted both the agreement that Mr Syed would not perform major urological surgery and the failure of the Dewsbury District Hospital NHS Trust to take earlier action against him.

The coroner, Roger Whittaker, sitting at Bradford coroner's court, criticised both the surgeon and the trust, saying: "I take the view that this is a death that should not have occurred. Management were aware he was operating as a full consultant but did nothing to prevent him.

"None of this would have happened if the trust had, as it should have done, precluded him from undertaking major procedures of this type."

Mr Whittaker said: "Reports were submitted to the General Medical Council, yet nothing appears to have been concluded. I shall therefore be forwarding a copy of this transcript for further review

Dr Paul Goulden, an anaesthetist at the hospital, said there had there been a "gentlemen's agreement" that Mr Syed should not carry out complex procedures.

He had gone to his superiors when he saw the locum had been assigned to a kidney removal. "I was absolutely astonished when I found out he had done more than 20 (kidney removals)".

Despite Dr Goulden raising the alarm to management about the unauthorised procedures, Mr Syed was allowed to carry out operations for another year.